


Vinny doesn't like change

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Vinny gets a life [11]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 20:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4362782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They get a round of applause when they come in to training camp together. From the vets, at first, but the rookies and the call-ups join in soon enough, even though they don’t know what they’re applauding.</p>
<p>“Fuck off all of you,” Anton says, and goes to his stall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vinny doesn't like change

Thomas has just gotten used to living with Anton when training camp starts. It’s a good thing that they’ve had time to adjust, smart thinking, either by Anton or his mom, though Thomas doesn’t think Tonya actually knew Anton was planning on moving in with him. 

It’s enough time that they’re both getting used to the fact that Thomas wakes up at least an hour after Anton when he has any choice in the matter, unlike during the season, when they both get up to the same alarm. Goes to bed an hour later too. For Anton to drag Thomas out jogging at least five too many times for Thomas’ liking, so. Five times. For them to find the comfortable median between Thomas cooking and the both of them ordering take-out. The new couch is starting to conform to Thomas’ body shape when he sits down on it, so it’s basically starting to be home. 

It’s a good thing they had time to settle in, because their offseason routines are so different that they spend most of their days apart, and now Thomas has just realised that they’re going to spend basically all their time together. The guys joke that they already do, but this is literally all their time. They’re going to go to practice together, and travel together, share a room on the road and then go home to the place they live together. Thomas isn’t going to lie, he’s stupid about Anton, but there have definitely been times after a long road trip where he is sick of Anton’s face. And now they just got rid of that escape. Thomas kind of wonders if this is what it’s like for married couples, except even married couples are apart. Married couples who work together, maybe. 

Maybe they’ll be fine! They’ll totally be fine. Thomas likes Anton more than anyone in the world, and he likes basically everyone. He’s pretty sure Anton likes him more than anyone, and he likes basically no one. They’ll work out. 

“What are you doing?” Anton asks him.

Thomas looks up from where he’s been frowning at the couch. He shouldn’t be frowning at it, after all, it’s been so great at molding to his shape. “Thinking,” he says.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Anton says, knee-jerk, the same thing he says whenever anyone says that, and then, frowning as well, “is there something wrong with the couch?”

“No,” Thomas says quickly. Anton’s been kind of touchy about whether Thomas likes the furniture they’ve decided on, and Thomas doesn’t want anything to happen to the couch, especially after the two of them have become acquainted. “I was —” Truth is probably the better idea here, for the couch’s safety, “everyone’s going to make fun of us.”

Everyone’s already making fun of them, at least to Thomas. He still doesn’t know if they’re doing it to Anton. He hasn’t mentioned anything, but that doesn’t mean anything either way. He’s the definition of stoic. Laconic, too. Thomas went on a thesaurus binge one day, he knows all the words to describe Anton, in French and English.

Anton rolls his eyes. “Who cares what they do?” he asks, and then, upon seeming to realise that the answer is _Thomas_ , Thomas cares, “they wish they had it so good.”

Thomas can’t help but smile at him. “Yeah?” he asks.

“Don’t fish for compliments, Vinny,” Anton says. “If I didn’t want to live with you I wouldn’t have asked.”

Thomas smiles wider.

“Don’t hug me,” Anton says, as Thomas is scooting over. It’s too late, though. The hug’s already happening. 

*

They get a round of applause when they come in to training camp together. From the vets, at first, but the rookies and the call-ups join in soon enough, even though they don’t know what they’re applauding.

“Fuck off all of you,” Anton says, and goes to his stall. 

Thomas is still a little touchy about the chirping he knows he’s going to get, going to straight up deserve. It strikes too close to home. But he knows the worst thing you can do is let someone know teasing bothers you, so he bows to the audience, hugs a few of the closest guys, and goes to his own stall, pausing when he realises he could just take Fourns’, he supposes, claim it was his all along. No one would rat him out. 

It’s not like Fourns had a spot that was any better, he just really doesn’t like the idea of Connors sitting in Fournier’s spot, taking Fournier’s place. Fourns would probably tell him he’s being a baby about it, and he is, but Fournier isn’t around anymore, so he can’t tell Thomas that he’s taking the loss too hard. Because he isn’t here.

Thomas sits down in Fournier’s place and dares anyone to comment. No one does. Anton raises an eyebrow at him briefly, but leaves it alone, and then Carmen’s bouncing over.

“Vinny,” he says, and Thomas gets up to give him a hug. “Dude, how’s married life?”

“No one thinks you’re funny, Carmen,” Grayson says.

Carmen pouts at Thomas. “You’re funny sometimes,” Thomas tells him. “Go get dressed.”

“I am going to ask you so many more questions,” Carmen promises, and Thomas briefly hopes that Gagnon bag skates everyone so Carmen won’t have the energy, then feels guilty about it.

Connors approaches him, and Thomas shakes the offered hand. “Married life?” he asks.

“I moved in with another teammate,” Thomas says. “Carmen just thinks he’s funny.”

“Cool,” Connors says, nodding a little, and Thomas spares a moment to be thankful he took Fourns’ spot so Connors didn’t take it with his boring, and then feels like a jerk about it. Connors is probably really nice. Thomas got too attached. He does that, he knows. People tell him not to, and if he could avoid it, he would, because it probably hurts less. 

Thankfully, getting dressed takes up the rest of the time. There are too many people to fit in the room, most of the Bulldogs and other call-ups in the visitors’ room, but he knows the whole goaltending dynamics’s different this year. Stanton was moved in the offseason, and Thomas had been working with him even longer than he had with Fournier. They didn’t have the same kind of relationship, but it just makes things even more strange, because for years, if it’s training camp, it’s Fournier and Stanton he’s competing with. Now, well. He’s got Edgar, at least, but Edgar’s career AHL, and knows it. 

He smiles at Edgar on the ice, at the goalie with him, whose name he’s embarrassed not to know.

“I’m Thomas,” he offers immediately. He’d offer his hand, but it’d be a little awkward if they both had to take their blockers off. 

“Benji,” the kid offers back. He’s young, young enough that he even makes Thomas feel old, which means Bovard would be moaning about age by now. Thomas didn’t recognise him by sight, but he was drafted by them a few years ago, probably has aged out of Juniors in time for training camp. 

“Nice to meet you,” Thomas says. “Good luck!”

“You’re the biggest suck up,” Carmen groans as he skates by, and one of the benefits of goalie padding is you can knock down a guy with inches and pounds on you if you lay the hit right. 

“That’s Sandro,” Thomas says. “You should ignore him.”

“That’s the best advice you’re ever going to get,” Bovard calls over.

“Why is everyone always against me?” Carmen moans, and Thomas laughs at him, but helps him up.

Training camp’s always a little slow the first day, a lot crowded, and today’s no exception, except for the fact that everything feels weird.

Thomas sends, _can u talk 2nite?_ to Fourns after they’re done for the day, and gets a thumbs up in response.

Fourns is on Skype at ten, after the twins have gone to bed. “Hi honey, how was your first day at school?” he asks.

Thomas halfheartedly gives him the finger. “It was weird,” he says. “Even Stanton wasn’t there.”

“Thank god for that,” Fournier says. “Aw, Vinny, don’t do that.”

“I’m not doing anything,” Thomas mumbles, though he knows he’s probably looking sad. He’s feeling kind of sad. He was sad before, but today he was there and Fournier wasn’t. Fourns was, in fact, all the way in Chicago. “I took your spot.”

“Hm?” Fournier says.

“In the room,” Thomas says. “I took your stall.”

“Can’t let that upstart get at it,” Fournier says, nodding. “Good boy.”

Fournier’s joking, but honestly, that’s how Thomas felt about it. 

There’s a knock on his door, and after a minute, Anton peeks his head in. “Did you want to watch — ” he starts, and then, “Oh, am I interrupting something?”

“It’s just Fourns,” Thomas says. 

“Of course it is,” Anton says, and when Thomas helpfully turns the screen, waves slightly. “If you want to watch something later, I’m up for another couple hours,” Anton says, then shuts the door.

“Oh Vinny,” Fourns says, all meaningfully, but Thomas doesn’t want to know what exactly the meaning is. 

“Shut up,” Thomas mumbles. “Tell me about the girls and the stupid Blackhawks and how much you miss me.”

Fournier laughs at him, but obligingly tells him how the twins are faring at their new school, and how Chloe accidentally got herself on school council by not escaping the clutches of a pushy mom fast enough. Some brief stuff about the Hawks, but Thomas doesn’t really want to hear that, and he thinks Fourns knows that. 

“You’re coming to dinner in December,” Fournier adds. “Chloe’s orders.”

“Duh,” Thomas says, and doesn’t think about how far away that is, or the fact it’s the only time he’ll be in Chicago all season. 

“You’re making that face again,” Fournier says sternly, and Thomas tries to stop doing it, but he doesn’t really have much control over his expressions, he knows that.

“The girls collaborated on a picture for you,” Fournier says. “They insist on mailing it to you. Aw, see, that face is better. Go watch a movie with Petrov before he feels jealous and comes to kill me.”

Thomas rolls his eyes, the way he always does when Fourns suggests that Anton’s jealous of him. “Give Chloe a hug from me?” 

“Oh no, I have to hug my wife?” Fournier says. “Not even for you.”

Thomas is still laughing when the call hangs up, and he wanders into Anton’s room. He’s left the door half open, which means Thomas is allowed. He’s already in his pyjamas, on his laptop in bed, so Thomas flops onto the other side.

“What’re we watching?” he asks.

Anton closes his laptop and hands him the remote. “All yours, Vinny,” he says. “Hit the lights first, though?” He falls asleep a half hour into the movie, but Thomas isn’t tired, so he stays and watches the rest. Once it’s over, he turns the TV off, the room gone dark around him, the only sound Anton’s slow breathing. He stays there for a minute, before it feels weird, like he’s trying to get away with something. “Night Tony,” Thomas says, quiet enough that he won’t hear it, and goes to put himself to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr!](http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/)


End file.
